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Summary
- A Zoopla report has forecasted 1.52 million home sales across the nation in 2021, higher by 45 per cent as compared to the previous year.
- The value of housing properties sold this year is projected to touch £461 billion, up 46 per cent as compared to last year.
- New buyer demand is likely to emerge during the second half of this year as the UK companies get to confirm if they will pursue more flexible working practices.
Property website Zoopla in its latest report, has said that the British housing sector is expected to get busiest in 2021, since as long back as 2007. The website has forecasted 1.52 million home sales across the nation this year, higher by a whopping 45 per cent as compared to the previous year. The property website says that its research results are centered around the largest underlying data set of any British house price index.
Zoopla said that the factors including stamp duty holiday, new government guarantees for mortgages and people’s need to have bigger houses due to being on work-from-home provided a strong growth momentum to the UK housing sector. The report also said that overall, this year is expected to be among the top ten busiest years since the year 1959.
The value of housing properties sold this year is projected to touch £461 billion, up 46 per cent as compared to last year, said the report.
Caroline Pattinson, managing director, Pattinson (a prominent estate agent), said that homes were selling much faster than before the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. In fact, the industry is already beginning to see supply side constraints and the total number of houses ready to be bought is down by 20.8 per cent in the year to mid-May.
Grainne Gilmore, Head – Research, Zoopla, has said that new buyer demand is likely to emerge during the second half of this year as the UK companies get to confirm whether they will pursue more flexible working practices or not.
Also Read: Focus On 3 FTSE Real Estate Stocks as UK Housing Prices Likely to Rise for Next 5 Years
Housing markets in the UK
The fastest growing housing markets in the UK were Yorkshire and the Humber, Wales, and north-west England, according to the Zoopla report.
On the other hand, markets where average home prices were falling included London, Kensington, Chelsea, Westminster, Hammersmith, and Fulham.
Let us now take a look at the stock performance of two prominent property companies in the UK.
Also Read: 5 Housebuilding Stocks to Build Wealth in 2021
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) Plc
The group’s trading update for the period from 1 November 2020 to 28 February 2021 said that it expected forward sales to be over £1.7 billion. It also projected the gross margin in the land bank to be more than £6.4 billion for FY 2021.
The company’s shares (LON: BKG) were up 0.07 per cent in the early morning trading on Wednesday to GBX 4,611.00.
British Land Company Plc
The company released its results for FY 2021 ending 31 March. It said that its underlying profits were reduced by 34.3 over the last year to £201 million.
The company’s shares (LON: BLC) were down 1.62 per cent in the early morning trading on Wednesday to GBX 511.20.
